Hey everyone! How did your Monday go? I hope a good start to the week! My class was cancelled so I just had Girls On the Run practice and then a Kappa Delta alumnae event – Bingo night at Hamburger Mary’s! More on that another time…
Last week I was invited by Bountiful Eatery to come by and review their restaurant. Since Lindsay originally told me about the restaurant I had to invite her to come along and we went on Sunday afternoon!
Bountiful Eatery is a relatively new restaurant in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago and its menu “is sensitive to the often over-looked population of allergy sufferers, dieters, healthy eaters and workout enthusiasts and caters to their needs for fresh, healthy, delicious gluten free food.” I was so excited when I saw their menu because it featured sandwiches on both gluten free bread and pitas! Trust me, this is a rare find. All of the bakery items are from Rose’s Bakery, which is also local to Chicago.
They have grilled food, pitas, salads, soups and stews, and a kids menu (which I was assured was available to all ages when I commented that the grilled cheese sounded good). They also had a delicious looking breakfast menu and smoothies, along with a build your own smoothie option!
Lindsay and I each started out with a soup, hers a squash soup and mine the spinach soup. It. Was. Amazing. Seriously, this soup was soooo good!
For lunch I ordered the Kale Veggie Pita. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo… So I borrowed this one from when Tina came to visit! (hers is a turkey avocado pita). You have an option of a side salad or chips.
Photo stolen from Tina’s Recap
The pita is seriously out of this world. If you had given it to me without saying it was gluten free I would have never known. It was so light and fluffy!
We were also given a dessert to sample! I honestly cannot remember what this was called, but it was also from Rose’s Bakery and was some sort of tofu-cream with a gluten free crus and raspberry filling. I know I’m not supposed to have soy, but I figured a couple bites wouldn’t kill me. I’m so glad I tasted it because it was AMAZING. I know, are you surprised? I was!
I am a huge fan of Bountiful Eatery and so glad that it’s not too far of a walk from where I live. I’ll definitely be going back!
After eating we got to speak with the owner, Ed O’Brien for a little while. It was great to hear all the effort that he’s been putting into his restaurant and how he really wanted our feedback on how to improve things. He’s very open to new suggestions and it’s clear they make all the food fresh in the kitchen themselves. He also started his own blog, so it was fun to talk blog shop! If you live in Chicago, I’d definitely go back with you!
Have you ever had/seen gluten free breads in a restaurant?
Chicago locals – where’s your favorite healthy lunch spot?